Funny part? I have a dozen email accounts and get the same message in several of them, they all have internal links (like I'm going to click on a link in a message like that), and when I cursor over the link the little message at lower left says the link goes to some other site.

Unfortunately, the Mayan calendar hoax is in full swing right now. We're getting multiple calls a day from people who are terrified that the world is going to end on Friday. We do our best to reassure people, but when it comes to scaring kids, I get really ticked off.

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If wisdom’s ways you wisely seek,Five things observe with care,To whom you speak,Of whom you speak,And how, and when, and where.Caroline Lake Ingalls

A chap turned up at my door one afternoon syhaing he had been told to meet someone in my street re: getting a shipping order to send a car to Nigeria. He had been given the street name but no number of house, and a mobile phone number which rang out. Did I know anyone form Nigeria living on the street? I said no. Were there any persons of colour who did? Yes, but not from Nigeria. I told him to contact the police, and shut my door. I did an internet check, and it was a scam, pay me the money, and I'll arrange shipment. I wonder why he diid it, you can surely buy a car in Africa?

Depending on where it's going and what kind of car, it may well be cheaper to buy one and ship it there.

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If wisdom’s ways you wisely seek,Five things observe with care,To whom you speak,Of whom you speak,And how, and when, and where.Caroline Lake Ingalls

I got a rather pathetic phishing e-mail this morning. It went on about how "you need to confirm your account" by clicking on a link. However, nowhere in the e-mail did it say what the account was supposedly for. Apparently, I'm just supposed to click in a pavlovian response.

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My cousin's memoir of love and loneliness while raising a child with multiple disabilities will be out on Amazon soon! Know the Night, by Maria Mutch, has been called "full of hope, light, and companionship for surviving the small hours of the night."

I was behind someone in the line at our small post office yesterday who was either a scammer or was caught in a scam, I think. [Small town, small post office, those in line hear pretty much everything that is happening at the window.]

The employee at the window told the guy in front of me that the post master wanted to talk with him. A few seconds later the man presumed to be the postmaster appeared with a large stack of mailing envelopes that had official looking address stickers on them.

The postmaster asked the man why some of the envelopes had different return addresses. I'm not sure why that was important. The man ahead of me said that these mailings were all from his new work-at-home job. Then the postmaster told him that some of the supposedly prepaid address labels were genuine, and some were copies. The man told the post master that all of the materials had been supplied to him by his job.

At that point the person behind me asked me a question, and I didn't hear the rest of the exchange. I can understand the scam of counterfeit prepaid address labels, but I wonder why the return address was important. I've heard that some of these work from home jobs are a scam in themselves, but I'm not sure why.

I worked as a security guard in college. Apparently on the phone system, if you dialed a specific combination of 2 numbers and then the pound sign (I forget what it was, so I will say 12#), it will transfer the call to an outside line and that caller can then dial whatever they like.

Someone had figured out that if they called the front desk and told the security guard that they were AT&T and were testing the lines, the guard would fall for it and they could get him/her to dial an outside line. They were calling Kenya and talking for 20-30 minutes at a pop.

Finally I got them and told them that the jig was up and they hung up on me.

I've heard that some of these work from home jobs are a scam in themselves, but I'm not sure why.

I saw a story about a woman who got scammed by one of those jobs. Putting packages together and mailing them off. She found out she was lucky they didn't arrest her even though she's a victim. Packages were coming from her address. I don't really understand the details of the scam either.

Oh! I think there was also something about her paychecks being deposited electronically and that is part of the scam. I don't remember much details though.

I think the scam part of many of those work-at-home jobs is that the person must first pay the "employer" for all kinds of material or training upfront before they can make any money. Once the fees are paid they either never hear back from the company nor get paid for any work they do.

For the package lady, some of the items she was given to send might be illegal or controlled items but labelled as say vitamins or herbal supplements.

For the postal one: a valid return address would be important because when the fake prepaid label was discovered, the post office wants to collect and/or prosecute the offending party. They want to trace it back to who did it. I've heard of postal scams where the person writes the address of where they want it to go in the return address space then drops it into the post without any/enough postage -- the post office then "returns" the mail to that address marked "postage due".

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"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." — Douglas Adams

I saw a story about a woman who got scammed by one of those jobs. Putting packages together and mailing them off. She found out she was lucky they didn't arrest her even though she's a victim. Packages were coming from her address. I don't really understand the details of the scam either.

People have begun to be wary of sending goods to some places like West Africa. So, let's say you are a 419 scammer. You order a case of bibles from an unsuspecting shop. (Bibles are very marketable in West Africa). Or, maybe it's iPads. You plan to pay with a bogus certified check. You don't want to give the seller a West African address, because the seller might be suspicious. You need a US or European address.

So, you recruit others with a work at home scheme. You come up with a convincing story about how you need people in the US to receive packages and resend them to your African/Asian/Antarctican address. The victim happily receives the packages & resends them. The scammer gets the goods before the seller discover that the check is phony. The mailer discovers that their paycheck is equally phone.

Great news, everybody! I won last month's $1000 Target gift card sweepstakes that I didn't enter! They notified me by text, but I'm sure that's normal. Off to text the number they gave me to collect my winnings!

I've received a bunch of mails from our electricity supplier, telling me that my automatic payment didn't proceed, and a few from my bank telling me that there was a payment problem. Little detail: I don't pay the electricity bill, my father does. That's not my bank... (and of course the grammar errors and all).I've also received 4 or 5 "there was a problem with your account at bankX.com", for bank A,B,C and D, none of which are actually my bank